In recent years, input devices having a combination of a touch panel and an image display device, such as cellular phones and portable music players, have become popular. In particular, capacitance touch panels have rapidly become popular because of their functionality.
There are now many known transparent conductive films for use in touch panels, which include a laminate of a transparent plastic film substrate or a glass sheet and a transparent conductive thin layer (ITO layer). A transparent conductive film can be laminated on any other member with a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer interposed therebetween. Various types of pressure-sensitive adhesive layers are proposed (Patent Document 1 to 4).
When the transparent conductive film is used as an electrode substrate for a capacitance touch panel, the transparent conductive thin layer used is patterned. The transparent conductive film with the patterned transparent conductive thin layer is laminated on another transparent conductive film or any other component with a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer interposed therebetween to form a laminate to be used. These transparent conductive films are advantageously used for a multi-touch input device, which can be operated by touching it with two or more fingers at the same time. Specifically, a capacitance touch panel is designed to achieve sensing when the amount of change in output signal, which is generated at a position where the touch panel is touched with a finger or the like, exceeds a certain threshold value.